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Obama: What you didn't know

Obama's Hotel California

Obama to NYC post-presidency? John Harris reports

He was one of many boldface Democratic donors willing to lend their names to Obama’s first presidential campaign and became a member of a small group of ex-NBA players summoned to play basketball with the president. Over the past few years, though, the president and player-turned-philanthropist developed a deeper bond that challenges the “no new friends” mantra the Obamas developed during the 2008 race.

Obama and Mourning have played golf together three times since November and spent time together during a March weekend in the Florida Keys. They talk about sports and family but also discuss social issues — particularly their shared interest in helping underprivileged kids. Mostly, though, they just savor the downtime.

“You get caught up in the fact that he’s so personable you do forget that he is the most powerful man in the world,” Mourning said in an interview. “That’s what he wants when he’s around his friends. He doesn’t want to be strictly political every time that he’s around us. I think he just wants to relax and exhale.”

Mourning, 44, fits in with Obama and his friends because he’s like them: successful, competitive, sports-obsessed. He says he’s not looking for fame, political favors or anything else from the president, and he is humble in explaining why he thinks the president has gravitated toward him. “I like to think I’m a pretty decent guy,” he joked.

Obama has told Mourning that he admires “what I stood for off the playing field just as much as what I’ve done on the court,” the former Georgetown star said, in a nod toward the work he does through his Mourning Family Foundation, which has spent more than $10 million on programs supporting kids in South Florida. “I would like to think that there is some symmetry in what he stands for as far as this country is concerned and as far as our focus in helping young people and providing opportunities for them across the board.”

Given their mutual interests, it’s no surprise the two men have become friends.

Politics and basketball were what brought the two men together, and they’ve also bonded over philanthropy and golf — occupations for the second halves of their adult lives.

The two often discuss “the plight of our young people here in this country” and what they can do to change it, Mourning said. It’s not just about spending money, it’s about spending money in the right ways, based on replicating what works, not just in one or two cities but, ultimately, nationwide. Obama “is trying to figure out the formula of success so that we can take more of a national approach to make a difference, so we can affect the masses from that perspective,” Mourning said.

In February, Obama launched My Brother’s Keeper, an initiative that aims to reach out to boys and young men of color by leveraging presidential leadership to coordinate the work of businesses, foundations, religious groups and governments.

With help from a small group of current and former aides including Jarrett, Danielle Gray and Michael Strautmanis — as well as outside voices including Mourning and Magic Johnson — Obama is aiming to use metrics and data to support projects that will make a difference in the lives of young people while also turning to the biography that served him so well as he built his political career.

“He recognizes that his story has an impact — both on the young men that he wants to make a difference in their lives for and on the broader community who hear his story — it humanizes and focuses it,” said a former senior administration official who helped Obama develop the program.

My Brother’s Keeper is aimed at affecting real change before Obama leaves office, people involved in the initiative say, but it’s also a jumping-off point for what comes next for him.